Baseball Boos Past or Bronx to Canada: Drop Dead

You've all seen the footage of the Washington Nationals crowd booing the president. 

Oh Washington, we lived there when you were a Third World craphole with a crack-head mayor who couldn't even plow the streets (see blizzard of '96). Now you're a nest of politicians and lobbyist taking other people's money. So let's not put on airs, ok?

Actually, we'd like to talk about another shocking display of bad form by sports fans.  Come back with us, dear reader(s) to the Olde New York, murder capitol of America, August 1993. Take it away Bob Klapisch:

NEW YORK - The pregame ceremonies were actually a group obscenity - 40,000 New York Yankees fans booing the Canadian national anthem. It wasn't just a pocket or 10 or 15 fools showing their contempt, either. As the Yankees began their biggest August series in a decade last night, an entire Yankee Stadium drowned out Robert Merrill as he sang "O Canada." One Yankee official closed his eyes, shook his head and said, "We were totally embarrassed" by the incident. It only got worse for the Yankees, who were outplayed by the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-0, falling two games out of first place. The ballpark had a reckless, hostile feel to it, fueled in part by a first-inning meltdown. With runners on first and third and none out against Toronto starter Todd Stottlemyre, Don Mattingly's fly ball to left turned into a double play at the plate, and after that the Yankees - and their fans - were history. By the ninth inning, fans were throwing bottles, battery packs and even bats at Joe Carter in right field. The game came to a virtual halt moments later as fistfights in the right-field bleachers were so heated, undermanned security guards were unable to control the violence.

Now that's the South Bronx we remember.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani called the mayor of Toronto to apologize. The next night legendary announcer Bob Sheppard scolded the crowd and tod them to be nice. This time when Oh Canada was played people cheered.

The Blue Jays won the World Series that year. 

We expect the Houston Astros to close things out tonight. 

Trump should attend the game. 

Baseball's Shameful Start Time

Tonight begins game two of the World Series. The first pitch will be sometime after eight o'clock.  In this case Major League Baseball has some excuse. Boston is on the East Coast, LA is on the West, a full three hours behind.  Even so, MLB could start tonight's game at 7 PM if they really wanted to. But they don't. Prime Time (8 PM to 11 PM for all you Euros out there) is where the big TV money is. The last day World Series game was played in 1987.

This has been baseball's standard operating procedure for 30 years now and it's a yuuge problem. How are kids supposed to watch the World Series when the first pitch happens right around bedtime?

Back when baseball was the National Pastime, teachers would have radios in the classroom, later TVs. Kids could listen to the game while they did classwork. The more devilish teachers would use the game as a carrot to get all the work done before the first pitch. 

Baseball was meant to be played outdoors in the sunshine, it's a very important part of the game*. 'Nice day for a ballgame, let's play two!'

This very famous homerun happened after midnight:

In this way, baseball lost a generation of fans, mine own. Growing up and as a young man, we were among the only Gen-Xrs we knew who liked baseball. It's pretty hard to get into the World Series when you're asleep.

*Is this a thing in Futball? Euros opine in the comments.
** Below, the alternate, hometown call:

The Baseball Niche*

Tonight the World Series of American baseball begins. 

We'll see the Los Angeles Dodgers play the Boston Red Sox. Foreign reader(s) these are two of the game's oldest and most storied franchises. This is the first time they've ever met in the WS.

Throughout the 20th century baseball was described as the National Past Time. And it was. In 1941 the three most popular sports in America were baseball, college football and boxing. All the other sports in America begin in the Autumn becuase back in the day, they didn't want to compete with Baseball. 

But in the late 1950s the NFL began its slow rise to prominence and passed baseball sometime in the 1980's. The NFL has never looked back.

Baseball is a niche sport now, all be it, the game has a big niche. That niche shrinks a little every year. For example, the Atlanta Braves' Sun Trust park holds 41,000. The Braves previous home, Turner Field, held 49,000. Before that Atlanta Fulton County Stadium had a capacity of 52,000.

Baseball likes to tell us that ball parks grow smaller becuase they want a more intimate setting closer to the action. Yeah right. If they could cram 70,000 in there, which the old Yankee Stadium in New York could hold, they would.

The game isn't as popular as it used to be. 

There's a lot of reasons why, we'll go into them all this week.

*Play on words. Anyone else remember The Baseball Bunch?

Baseball Long Long

Look guys in the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, you gotta do something about this.

Last night's ten inning game took more than five hours.

Now granted there was a ton of hitting in the Astros' 14-13 win over the Dodgers, but come on.

Every batter has to step out, adjust his gloves, take a few practice swings.

Every pitcher has to walk around the mound, collect his thoughts.

And how many times does the catcher have to come to the mound and talk to the pitcher? Fellas, if you haven't figured this out by now...

While last night's game was an extreme example, most ball games take three to three and a half hours, which is just too long.

Back during Babe Ruth's time Yankee late inning comebacks were nicknamed 'five o'clock lightning'. The games began at three.

From now on get the ball, set, throw the ball. Batters must keep one foot in the box at all times.

OK?

The below footage is of Mike Hargrove, nicknamed 'the human rain delay'. Today his routine would be utterly unremarkable:

Must we add a pitch clock?

Baseball LA LA

With the Los Angeles Dodger back in the World Series many have been pointing out that this is the Dodgers' first appearance since 1988. We remember that team well. Those Dodgers had some pitching, especially Orel 'bulldog' Hershiser who that season pitched 59 consecutive scoreless innings. The Dodgers also had this guy:

Kirk Gibson  changed the whole course of the World Series with one swing.

Watch Kirk Gibson hobble around the bases. They beat the Mets that year in the playoffs, a vastly more talented team. In truth the Dodgers that year were OK, but they didn't have a lot of hitting. That was Gibson's only at-bat. We vividly recall NBC broadcaster Bob Costas pointing out on live TV how little punch the Dodger's lineup had:

The Dodgers' beat the Athletics 4-1.

It's Gibson who's remembered but Hershiser won games two and five, pitching complete games in both. At the end of game 5 some Oakland fan shouted, 'You were lucky Hershiser!' to which he replied, 'Grab a bat, kid!'

Time, Time, Time...and the Cubs

Things that existed the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series:

1-The Ottoman Empire
2-The Austrian Empire
3-The Czar of Russia
4-The British Raj
5-Trusts
6-Jim Crow
7-People who remembered veterans of the American Revolution
8-People who remembered an America without baseball
9-Civil War Veterans


Things that did not exist the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series:

1-Antibiotics
2-The NFL
3-NBC, CBS, ABC, BBC...
4-X-rays
5-The Interstate
6-Live baseballs
7- Air power
8-Voting women
9-Talkies!
10- Baseball west of the Mississippi